Join us in welcoming and congratulating our new cohort of Beyond the Bars fellows!
The Beyond the Bars Fellowship is a certificate-based program through the Center for Justice at Columbia University that offers interdisciplinary leadership to develop and deepen your identity, analysis, skills and network towards ending mass criminalization and incarceration, and creating a more just and safe world. It meets weekly for approximately eight months. Through seminars, workshops and guest lectures, Fellows explore their own experiences and identities as people working for social change; gain a theoretical and practical understanding of mass incarceration; and are introduced to various models of social change including community organizing, legislative advocacy, restorative and transformative justice, communications and more. In addition, Fellows identify issues and existing efforts for change and then work together to develop advocacy and / or organizing projects to further support those efforts. A primary goal of the Fellowship is to support Fellows’ in finding their place in the movement, while offering them the knowledge, skills, experience and community to sustain their work. The Fellowship is made up of students, community members, and formerly incarcerated and directly impacted people. Our aim is to work collaboratively with the university and the community towards social change.
